Monday, September 12, 2016

For those who watch "Game of Thrones", the name Nikolaj Coster-Waldau would be familiar as he is Jamie Lannister in that hit series. I am probably the only human being on this fair earth who DOES NOT watch it so I cannot really comment on his acting in GoT.

In "A Second Chance", he is Andreas, a police detective who with his partner are called to a house where a domestic dispute has been reported. Tristan, an ex convict and junkie lives in a squalid apartment with his addict girlfriend Sanne. Deplorable conditions abound as exemplified by the sorry state of their little baby boy Sofus who is covered with his own feces and terribly malnourished. Andreas, a brand new parent himself to a baby boy roughly the same age as Sofus is appalled but cannot do anything as Sanne is not willing to file charges against her deadbeat boyfriend, the father of her child.

In contrast, Andreas's sprawling glass enclosed house near a quiet lake is quite impressive. In fact, I was wondering how he could afford to live so opulently on a cop's salary but I'm guessing they are paid relatively well in that neck of the woods. I don't really know for sure.

He lives there with his emotionally fragile wife Anne who displays all the classic symptoms of postpartum depression. Easily distracted and unable to connect with her own son, she is despondent but Andreas tries his best to make her feel comfortable until a tragedy strikes which shakes both of them to the core.

It is this very unfortunate incident which pivots the film into a rather bleak and morose atmosphere where intense emotions and melodramatic sequences thrive. Against the background of a wintry setting, a chilly life altering decision by Andreas ruffles all the characters moral fibers. In this regard, the film ably achieves its thought provoking vibe, very effectively.